Reacting with unusual alacrity to a Supreme Court judgement delivered on August 9 last year, the Maharashtra Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MBSHSE) has announced that from this year (2012) onwards, classes X and XII students can apply under the Right to Information (RTI) Act to examine their board exam answer-books, if dissatisfied with their marks. According to an MBSHSE spokesperson, students have to send their details on a Rs.10 stamp paper to MBSHSE within a month of the board results being declared.
This liberal announcement made by Ravindra Bhise, divisional secretary of the state board, on February 8, is a radical departure from past practice when students could only ask for confirmation whether marks had been awarded for each question, and totalled correctly.
MBSHSE’s announcement is the outcome of a Supreme Court judgement in Central Board of Secondary Education vs. Aditya Bandopadhyay & Ors (Civil Appeal No. 6454 of 2011), delivered on August 9 last year, in which Justices R.V. Raveendran and A.K. Patnaik dismissed an appeal of CBSE against a Calcutta high court judgement. Aggrieved by the low marks awarded to him in the CBSE class X exam in 2008, Aditya, a student of a Kolkata school, applied under the RTI Act to CBSE for inspection and re-evaluation of his exam answer papers.
CBSE rejected his application on the ground that the rules of the board permitted only retotalling of marks, not a complete re-evaluation of answers and that students are not allowed to examine answer-books. It argued that the infor-mation sought was exempted under s. 8(1) (e) of the RTI Act as it came within the purview of the board’s “fiduciary relationship” with its examiners.
In its judgement delivered on February 5, 2009, the Calcutta high court ruled that the evaluated answer-book of an examinee writing a public examination conducted by national and regional boards, is a “document, manuscript record, and opinion” that falls within the definition of “information” as defined in s. 2(f) of the RTI Act. Moreover, it held that the fiduciary relationship of CBSE ends after examiners transfer the evaluated answer-books to the board. Cons-equently, it directed CBSE to grant inspection of the answer- books to the plaintiff. However, the court rejected Aditya’s prayer for re-evaluation.
CBSE filed a special leave appeal in the Supreme Court in 2011 against the Calcutta high court judgement, which was rejected on August 9, 2011. The Supreme Court’s ruling in this case is applicable to all 34 school examinations boards countrywide.
But the February 8 MBSHSE announcement allowing students of Maharashtra to examine their class X and XII board exam papers has evoked mixed reactions. According to some educators, this initiative will add to the pains of the exam boards which examine millions of students every year, and will prove to be an administrative nightmare. “Transparency and accountability are great object- ives but the exam boards don’t have the infrastructure to support them,” says Avnita Bir, principal of R.N. Podar School, one of Mumbai’s top-ranked CBSE-affiliated schools.
However, Dr. Frazer Mascarenhas, principal of Mumbai’s renowned St. Xavier’s College, welcomes the court ruling and MBSHSE’s transparency initiative. “Mumbai University has already introduced this system. It’s obviously a boon for school-leaving students, since it will prompt examiners to be more careful while evaluating answer papers. School-leaving exams are so crucial for children’s future,” he says. Nevertheless he admits that the ruling might prove an administrative headache for the Maharashtra state board. “To deter frivolous applications, students should be charged stiff review and inspection fees,” he suggests.
Certainly the apex court’s judgement in this case has raised several important administrative issues. Will the boards have adequate manpower to process a flood of RTI applications? Will delayed final mark sheets cause college admission delays? And there is no clarity on a key issue — re-evaluation. Under the judgement, students may examine their answer papers but cannot insist upon re-evaluation.
Jayanthi Mahalingam (Mumbai)
Band-aid solution
For the 563,000 children in the western seaboard state of Maharashtra (pop. 112 million) who are obliged to drop out of primary school every year because of illness, family pressure or force majeure reasons, there’s good news. The Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research and Training (MSCERT) has prepared special learning programmes for primary school dropouts who want to return to school. This initiative has been prom-pted by public pressure to implement the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) applicable to all children in the age group six-14.
Under the provisions of the RTE Act, every student in the six-14 age group must be admitted into the age-appropriate class (s. 4). For example, an eight-year-old child has the right to be admitted into class III of the neighbourhood government primary school even though she may have skipped classes I-II. “Bearing this in mind, we have designed remedial learning programmes for each grade. Based on oral and written tests, teachers will be able to identify laggard students and help them bridge learning gaps and join regular classes,” says Shakuntala Kale, joint director, MSCERT. Text and other books required for remedial education are provided free-of-charge in government and aided schools across the state.
According to a study report prep-ared by Dr. Sunita Chugh, assistant professor at the National University of Educational Planning and Adminis-tration (NUEPA), New Delhi, the total number of recognised government schools with primary and upper primary classes in Maharashtra aggregates 106,043 with an enrolment of 13.5 million children, of whom 48 percent are girls. Against this, as per the latest data of the state government’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (education for all) programme, 2.68 percent (237,000) children dropped out of primary (classes I-1V) school in the academic year 2010-11, and 7.58 percent (326,000) from upper primary classes.
Under the remedial programme, each dropped out and rejoining student will receive a workbook for each subject, and chapters will be taught based on real life practical examples. For instance maths subtraction and addition sums will be illustrated by examples of the outcome of purchasing two toffees at Rs.2 each from Rs.5. “Remedial classes will comprise a mix of students who have been to school, dropped out and some who have never been to school,” says Kale.
To determine if a student is ready for admission into an age-appropriate class, an entry level test will be conducted, and the parameters of these tests have also been defined by MSCERT. “These tests will determine the extent of each child’s 3 r’s (reading, writing and ’rithmetic) ability. Based on test results, teachers can determine a child’s learning ability,” explains Kale.
“Defining each dropped out or first-time student’s remedial education needs prior to her joining an age-appropriate class is an excellent idea, as it saves teachers a lot of time and effort. It will definitely make our task easier as also ensure that dropped out and rejoining students don’t lose their confidence,” says Padmaja Sardeshpande, a class IV teacher of the Mahatma Phule School, Nana Peth.
Yet while mapping the remedial needs of lapsed students is undoubtedly a welcome initiative, the public interest might be better served if policy formulators, educators and teachers simultaneously address the numerous lacunae — crumbling infrastructure, obsolete curriculums, teacher truancy and indifference — which compel over 500,000 children to opt out of primary, especially government primary educa-tion. Band-aid solutions are clearly inadequate for the deep malaise afflicting primary education in India.
Huned Contractor (Pune)